Harry was blown away by Nicolas Lopez's AFTERSHOCK starring Eli Roth - But watch what you read about it!

Alright, so we're beginning to feel Fantastic Fest 2012 begin to come to an end. You can sense it, familiar faces have disappeared returning to the far flung homes, but the festival is still cracking away. I had intended to see two films today, but the traffic on the way downtown was just truly insane, what usually takes 35 minutes at rush hour for us, took an hour & twenty. SO... we had a proper dinner and arrived in time for one of the clear highlights of FANTASTIC FEST 2012.

I've known that Eli Roth has been down in Chile shooting with Nicolas Lopez on some kind of "Earthquake" flick called AFTERSHOCK. Eli has produced the film - and stars in the movie. Now, if you don't know Nicolas' work - I highly recommend checking out PROMEDIO ROJO and SANTOS, along with his FUCK YOUR LIFE if you can. Most are available via Netflix, but ever since 2004 when Nicolas Lopez kicked off my first day of SXSW with a screening of PROMEDIO ROJO... I've been a fan. Instantly upon seeing the film, I knew... this was going to be a major director.

I know, the film is silly, but the heart and soul of that film told me everything I needed to know about his abilities. The movie was absolutely fluent in geek, but it was also just a wonderfully shot film. The characters were compelling and I instantly wanted to see more by him - and thus far he hasn't disappointed... BUT, I really do mean this when I say... For most of you, even if you've seen everything that Lopez has done... AFTERSHOCK is a quantum leap forward in terms of having a film that can play world wide.

AFTERSHOCK is structured to be two entirely separate movies, but if feels seamless to me. And the longer the film played as a vacation, the more tense I got, wondering when the world was going to fall apart. And how bad it was going to get.

Having Eli Roth as a producer and star - who worked very hard with Lopez to make this film, I felt a bit unsettled as Eli does like to go places that most films fear to tread and I was very curious to see how this creative partnership was going to play out.

WOW.

The film is structured like POSEIDON ADVENTURE or TITANIC. They dedicate the lion's share of the first half to 100% getting to know how these characters tick. Before I go into that, here's the set-up...

Eli Roth plays a fairly square recently divorced Legal Firm working Dad - hanging with a pair of Chilean buddies on vacation and he's trying desperately to hook up with some girls, but it being a foreign country - and his rather sad lack of game results in a lot of blue balls for the Bear Jew. When Tim League introduced the film - he referred to Eli as a Douche in the film - and for the majority of the movie - I didn't get that. We all have those single friends that just have a noted lack of game, and Eli's character is just out of his depth. It is very fun to watch though, because Nicolas Martinez's Pollo - a rich cool as fuck Chilean friend that is a social animal - in the best kinds of ways. He's the life of a room, knows everyone it seems - constantly makes any slightest problem disappear and is the focal point for plans of action in the first half of the film. Then there's the third friend, Ariel Levy, who plays Ariel. He's an ex-fatman, whose girlfriend serially cheats on him and yet he is still begging to get back with her. Pollo is trying to get him to move on, but he's glued to his phone, texting her and watching her FACEBOOK to figure out what she's up to.

The sense of fun these guys have is at the very least a full on equal to the fun that the HANGOVER movies have given us as a template for what having fun in a modern film is like... BUT, this feels more real. The clubs and concerts feel absolutely authentic. When they hook up with these 3 girls played by Andrea Osvart, Natasha Yarovenko and Lorenza Izzo... They decide to head to a coastal town for "the real Chile" and an attempt to bang these three chicks, if we're being honest.

I love the Chile of the first half. It's a great metropolitan environment with beautiful structures and so colorful. The clubs kick ass - and the music is wonderful. The whole time you're watching these sequences, all you can think is... THIS LOOKS LIKE SO MUCH FUN!

So they go to this club in the new town. They're all getting closer together, they're kind of butting heads, pushing each other's buttons, but when Andrea Osvart and Natasha Yarovenko, who play sisters, start fighting... it's like this sister battle decides to just tear the world apart. The earthquake begins - and all fun exits. Suddenly, it is a very real nightmare scenario. People are dying truly horrible deaths, the sense of panick and the tension of 'What the fuck do you do' that comes out of this initial sequence sets up a chaos that stays with us for the next half of the film.

When the film becomes about surviving this tragedy, the film becomes deadly serious. Communications go down, rioting begins, a prison cracked open and sprays the shit of soceity all over the town. Rape and murder gangs take to the streets - and the 3 women in the friends' care are now attracting these gangs of predatory human wolves to pursue them. The tension goes through the roof - meanwhile, through all of this - people start getting mangled, killed and mentally shutting down. I love Eli through this sequence. He's in complete survival mode - and completely aware of the fact that if his friends don't go through this with him, he's fucked. He doesn't know where he is, he doesn't speak Spanish - he's dead without them - and well... It's just great to watch how he moves forward through this disaster.

This is a huge Irwin Allen film, that was shot for a song, but measures up to anything Hollywood has dished out. Remember how great FAST FIVE looked - this looks that good.

DIMENSION picked up this film at Toronto last week and was good enough to let FANTASTIC FEST show the film, but personally I feel they need to target a great disaster date and build a huge release for this film. The audience at Fantastic Fest were cheering, screaming and just roaring with the film. Really great audience film.

Now the film is actually based on that 2010 catastrophic Earthquake that director Nicolas Lopez lived through - and then heard stories from all over the country. Friends all sharing where they were and what they were doing. A girlfriend that was running from a Tsunami... Rape gangs, looters, escaped prisoners... even the club where everything goes to hell... ALL taken from reality.

I love how this is a disaster film that doesn't linger or particularly fetishizes the disaster. Like how DISTRICT 9 shows the big stuff kind of caught in the process - instead of lovingly photographed. You see huge things, but when huge stuff is going down, these characters usually move away from the enormous building that is toppling.

This film puts the Roland Emmerich disaster films to shame, because the characters just live this experience in a much more honest manner. Nobody is particularly more precious than anyone else. Eli is forced to show a rather dark side to his character's psyche at a key moment that feels like a moment that makes him a bad person, but at the same time... during that moment, think about the phone call with his daughter. How he left an easy lay, to talk with his daughter - and remember that face and that precious little girl - and suddenly I understand everything that happens for him.

Human beings do extraordinary things in the chaos of the world, but they also make decisions that scar them for life. This is a film that shows that we are people that enjoy and love life. That try to have fun, that travel to learn, to party and to fuck. That our iPhones, flashy cars and riches don't amount to a hill of beans when the shit hits the fan and the world is coming down around you.

I love this flick. I love that it just wallops the audience and when it needs to punch you, your spine will feel it.

Tomorrow's a very fun day - with the awesome Secret Screening and a roughcut of PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 4... I can't wait! See y'all then!

Watch out for spoilers on this one, you don't want key moments ruined on this one.

If so, I'm definitely in for this ...
I love it when films take the time to emotionally invest you in characters only to kick you in the nuts when they die ..
It's a pity more movies don't do it, I'd bet they do more money if they did through the word of mouth they'd generate ...

Sept. 26, 2012, 4:45 a.m. CST

by Cobra--Kai

Sounds like a cool film from the description..
Or is it just any film featuring rape gangs gets extra credit on aicn...

Harry, you clearly indicate that the tension was a big part of that first half, wondering when the quake would hit... and then you go and tell us.
Spoilers in that manner, especially when YOU warn people to avoid spoilers, are pretty bad.

But instead of a bunch of douche bags partying and not getting the audience to care about them and then getting torture porned, a bunch of douche bags party and not get us to care about them and then get caught in natural disaster porn.

Love it. For me, maybe the most entertaining four words Harry has written. I would have gone with "documented lack of game", but it is Harry's website. Him writing that reminds me of the Seinfeld episode when Jerry is trying to figure out why everyone thinks his hot, seemingly perfect girlfriend is such a loser. And George says something along the lines of "maybe she is the one in the group everyone makes fun of. You know, like how we have Elaine."

- Create a Venn Diagram demonstrating the following:
*...two entirely separate movies, but if [SIC] feels seamless to me.*
- Quantify just how much closer a movie is to global distribution when it has moved *...a quantum leap forward in terms of having a film that can play world wide.*
- What percentage of the movie is dedicated to character development if *They dedicate the lion's share of the first half to 100% getting to know how these characters tick.*?
- Sort the following into a hierarchical system quantifying amounts of fun. Be sure to include Sense of fun, actual fun, Hangover's template of fun, what having fun in a modern film is like, and how each level of fun is affected by how real it feels:
*The sense of fun these guys have is at the very least a full on equal to the fun that the HANGOVER movies have given us as a template for what having fun in a modern film is like... BUT, this feels more real.*

There is a huge difference between The Poseidan Adventure, Titanic and this. Those movies made you care about the actors and when the shit hits the fan, we want them to make it. This sounds like a bunch of douche bags, acting like douche bags and I for one would be rooting for Eli to be gang banged by the crazy prisoners. I'm not a fan of Eli as an actor. I find him annoying as hell. But I digress. The movie does sound a lot like Hostel. Set up a bunch of guys trying to get laid, only to find themselves in a scary situation. I'm not even a fan of Titanic, but comparing this movie to Titanic is like saying Human Centipede like Frankenstein. Hey, they are both about mad scientists, right? I will probably check this movie out on netflix or cable one day, but I now know I'm going to hate it because you've hyped this movie up way too much. If you would've called Aftershock a gritty, realistic, disaster movie, that's solid low budget movie from a director who has real promise, I'd think, "Hmm, could be worth checking out." But gushing over this movie, that can't possily be as good as you suggest (especially with Eli as the star) only makes me skeptical of this movie.

You've hit the nail on the head. Harry is nearly incapable of non-hyperbolic writing. Almost everything is MIND-BLOWINGLY-AMAZING or PROFOUNDLY DISAPPOINTING.
In the X amt. of years he has been doing this, he has yet to learn the truth about criticism: It is strikingly easy to praise or trash something, even though that is the most FUN a critic can have. A truly insightful critic knows how to parse the strengths and weaknesses of the movies in the middle (frankly, 99.99% of movies), and give us (the reader) an intriguing look at a piece of art and plant the seed for our decision to see it.
I have no preconceptions of this movie; I do not know if it is good or not. Having read Harry's review, the following is what I've learned are, in his mind, good about this movie:
*absolutely fluent in geek* Friends, we are killing the word geek. Geek now is a term that indicates something is so self referential it has now become a culture eating itself. Step away from the term GEEK, please, or before too long every movie will have to have a sly Star Wars reference and a cameo by Stan Lee before GEEK websites will even acknowledge it as entertainment.
*wonderfully shot* Great, but my iPhone shoots everything wonderfully these days. Hell, home devices even have a Steady-Cam feature now.
*characters are compelling* and time is spent *getting to know how these characters tick* Anton Checkov, take note: Do your character development early on, not after the end credits.
*People are dying truly horrible deaths* as opposed to dying partially horrible deaths, or living truly horrible deaths. So the movie presents death as horrible. Harry, you're not getting my attention so far. At least not in the way you intend.
*Remember how great FAST FIVE looked - this looks that good* this would be important if we were in 1993. Lifetime movies about abortion rights are now shot in Hi-Def.
*The audience at Fantastic Fest were cheering, screaming and just roaring with the film* This is actually a good point, and lends credence to Harry's assertion that this is a good movie. I might remind Harry to remember his Godzilla debacle, though.
Plot Strengths:
*Suddenly, it is a very real nightmare scenario*
*Communications go down, rioting begins, a prison cracked open and sprays the shit of soceity all over the town*
Does an ex-writer for Airwolf co-ghost write your columns with you? Who writes like that?
An image and sentence for all to ponder as you nod off to sleep:
*Friends all sharing where they were and what they were doing. A girlfriend that was running from a Tsunami...*

I mean seriously, his being your douchy frat boy hollywood kinda-friend with connections way above his paygrade may be a reason to tolerate his ass, but it is not a reason to put him in front of the fucking camera. Ever.
Eli Roth is a bad director, an even worse writer, and isn't anything even remotely resembling an actor. In fact all he really appears to be is a blatant oxygen thief. But I guess he knows all the right dicks to suck, and these days apparently that's enough to build a career around.

So the first act is 40 minutes spent with douche Roth and his douche friends before the big quake happens, and the second act is a half hour or so of disaster porn, before settling into a third act of back alley gang rape and torture porn? To me, that sounds like the worst kind of mendacious and mediocre shite.

seriously what self respecting woman would go near harry? In the words of the immortal Hunter S. Thompson "leave that weird fucker alone" . Just like I don't believe Cheryl Miller and Reggie Miller are two seperate people , I swear "cheryl" is just Reggie in a wig , I don't believe Harry has a wife. Harry you are that friend with no game . You ginger basement dwelling toy playing john carter loving hack. What a joke.

Hyphens do not serve the same purpose as commas.
Good lord. Please please PLEASE get a fucking editor. You don't even have to hire one. Just shoot an article to Quint and be like, "Hey man, would you mind reading over this before I post it?"

At a certain point, it's not just the tortured syntax and comically ungrammatical constructions that are the problem.
It's what the lazy, sloppy writing reveals about the writer and his publisher (in this case, one and the same person). There's an arrogance to publishing sentences like this. The message is: screw you, reader. I'll write whatever I want and you'll sit there and take it.
Not forever, I think. This site will be dead if someone doesn't get a better handle on the editorial side of things.

There it is in the HTML: space, non-breaking space, space.
And it's only Harry's pieces that seem to do this. Because, you know, his sentences are so brilliant that a little dot at the end isn't enough to punctuate their import. You need the three spaces to digest the awesomeness of what you just read.

Also the predilection to randomly capitalize Nouns.
*Eli Roth plays a fairly square recently divorced Legal Firm working Dad*
He doesn't do so bad in that regard this time around, but sometimes he goes so far as to PUT random words IN all caps (see his DVD columns for those).

Read M6y's post above....and now take the 'sentence' he posts as an example of Harry's train-wreck writing:
*How he left an easy lay, to talk with his daughter - and remember that face and that precious little girl - and suddenly I understand everything that happens for him.*
It is 3 fragment thoughts slopped together with random punctuation.
Try this:
*Remember, he left an easy lay to talk to his daughter. Seeing that face and that precious little girl, suddenly I understand everything that happens to him.*
Now, as an editor, I tried to leave his verbiage and thoughts intact, but tidy up the grammatical delivery system. Surprise, surprise! Read my edited sentence in the context of the paragraph...Harry actually has a good point to make. That is what frustrates me so much: He does have a unique viewpoint that I would be interested in, if it weren't wrapped up in such sloppy misusage of the language.
Not just sloppy: contemptuous disregard. It is clear he doesn't even deign to spend 10 seconds rereading a single sentence.
I honestly think he views himself as a kind of gonzo writer...outside the system, unfettered by all those pesky rules. Sorry Harry: You don;t get to be an Ornette Coleman but never studying music. You have to be a master of the rules before you can creatively break them. There is a fine but definite line between being a master of a game and being a cheater. Masters remake the rules; cheaters break them.

The "we all know this guy" thing is uncomfortably close, but at least we didn't have to read about the earthquake he lived through when he was nine that forever changed his life and made THIS VERY FILM so resonant and profound.

You'd have to LITERALLY re-write huge portions of what he's TRYING to say. I know, because I've done it before and posted them in the talkbacks. Clearly, dude just doesn't care what people think about his writing. Seems odd to me, but whatever, it's not my site or my reputation.

Seriously, I've been reading this site for years and if I've learned one thing its that this guy couldn't spot talent if it climbed his wheelchair and sat on his face. I'm sure your a nice guy and all and I sympathize with your disability but seriously you suck dude. This Lopez guy really bites, I made the mistake of watching Santos and it was possibly the worst film ever made. I really don't understand the motivation behind pumping up this talentless hack. Maybe Harry genuinely thinks he is good, that is a scary thought although considering Harry's "accomplishments" in film are dubious at best (curious that Fanboys isn't listed on your imdb, the second worst movie possibly ever made) he has lost what little credibility he had left.

While I'm ranting let me add that this g-d site needs a g-d redesign it's the most scattershot haphazard design on the entire web. PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD HAVE SOMEONE REDESIGN THIS HEAP OF GARBAGE. It would be nice if your search worked even a little bit. CHUD needs another redesign too!

Really, so unlikeable. Harry likes weird stuff sometimes and made me see Roth's Cabin Fever.
Eli Roth was ok in Inglorious Bastards but A. Tarantino is the king of getting decent performances out of mediocre actors, and B. His character was supposed to be an asshole. So it worked for him.

This reads like something that has been written by a Chinese fanboy and babelfished into so-called English. Honestly, enthusiasm shouldn't give people a pass to publish writing. And in what universe is '...got no game' an actual thing that should be uttered by anyone of reasonable intelligence that ISN'T in some shitty frat boy comedy? I'm one of the few people that liked 'Cabin Fever' but even so, this review reeks.